First, let me thank you all for the warm birthday wishes on Facebook. I had my in-laws in all weekend so I didn’t see them until this morning, or I would have responded sooner. However, I must reveal unto you that my IRL birthday is not actually December 1; it’s really in February. I claimed 12/1/1900 as my date of birth on Facebook for two reasons: 1) I like to fokk with the data on Facebook and 2) I wanted “Betty Fokker” to be a Sagittarius. The archers of the Zodiac put the “brutal” in “brutal honesty” and they usually have teacher-like tendencies. They are also mentally brazen. I like mentally brazen, and I have lots of Sagittarius friends. Sagittarius just seemed the way to go, vis-à-vis my fake birthday.

Last year I gave my Facebook friends a heads up that my faux birthday was on the horizon, but I forgot to do it this year. My bad. Thus your warm regards were erroneously given, but I assure you that they were very appreciated nonetheless.

The weekend with the in-laws went fine. I took Sweet Babou’s mom (AKA Nanny) and we bought Lilo & Spock their Christmas dresses. Stitch has no fewer than seven hand-me-down perfectly good holiday dresses in the closet so she didn’t need one. She got a shirt with the Bumble from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on it instead. While we were at the mall we discovered there is now a small train that does a little meander around inside the building. Needless to say, tickets (only $3 so not insanely pricy) were purchased for Nanny and the girls. There was MUCH rejoicing. Even though I almost stabbed some evil twatwaffle who pushed in ahead of my kids, just so she could try to keep one of the “cars” all to herself and her child. Lilo, doing her mother proud, said in a loud voice, “Mommy! That woman was very rude! I am so glad you are not rude like that!”

Atta girl, Lilo.

Speaking of Lilo, Asperger’s syndrome will get the boot from the psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders, “instead its symptoms will come under the newly added “autism spectrum disorder”, which is already used widely. That umbrella diagnosis will include children with severe autism, who often do not talk or interact, as well as those with milder forms”. Frankly, I am not happy about it. Kids with Asperger’s (especially girls) are often already undiagnosed or assumed to be “quirky” and that might get worse if practitioners are looking for more severe “classic” Autism symptoms. Lilo was originally diagnosed with “potential ADD” and if one of her teachers hadn’t been on top of it we might not have gotten her the more extensive testing that showed she was Aspie. Yes, ADD is one of the many alphabet clusters that come with Asperger’s … but it is by no means the whole enchilada.

I am trying to be rational and wrap my brain around the fact they will put such a WIDE spectrum of needs under one umbrella. Maybe it is a bit like my PTSD diagnoses. Yes, I have the symptoms of PTSD but comparing my shit with the hell-on-earth a returned war veteran is going through is comparing a firecracker to a hydrogen bomb. Same diagnoses, but it feels … shabby and self-aggrandizing … for me to have the same “condition” as a person who has lost his functionality to shellshock.

I’m sorry about the umbrella situation. I do not understand how in the hell this is supposed to be ‘better’. I was confused enough when the school system put the kids with learning disabilities under the same program with the extra smart kids. They are all termed ‘gifted’ and the same people (same, severely overworked people, I might add) handle all the programs for both. Now the medical profession is going to lump all these different disorders together? My mind just boggles at the thought.

I saw the the news about the reclassification of Asperger’s on the news today. What they were saying, and I haven’t done any further research so take this with a grain of salt, is that it’s going to mean more services available for the Asperger’s kids. If that’s the case, the change should be helpful for those who already have the diagnosis. Of course, I wouldn’t put it past the insurance companies to suppress the diagnosis or encourage doctors to change the diagnosis of kids already in the system. But I do think there are potential benefits to this change, too.

I don’t like to give fb real data either. That’s why it drives me crazy when people try to lure me into those games and stuff. When you sign on to do them they want a bunch of info that is none of their damn business.
Happy Fake Birthday